Wherever We'll Go
by Infrared-Ultraviolet
Summary: Her loneliness has dispelled at last, but grief and feelings of abandonment have a way of lingering. She's growing restless trapped in her castle. Worse, she realizes she might want more than her only friend in the world can ever give. Maybe she knows on some level that love isn't like the fairy tale books, but Anna can hope. Companion piece to Dragon-Riding in Arendelle.


**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE PREVIEW PICTURE! IT BELONGS TO sweetbutterflyeffect ON DEVIANTART! I also do not own any of the characters. All I own is the storyline.**

* * *

She sat with her feet dangling over the bluff, eyes fixed on the shifting ocean far below her. There was a time when the sheer drop would have made the inside of her stomach wrap around itself in uncomfortable, heavy lumps, but now she only looked down at the distant blue with a sort of detached serenity.

"You know you're going to fall off this thing if you keep leaning like that," came a voice from behind her. "And Toothless is taking a nap, don't make him have to come and save you!"

She turned and looked at where the black dragon was curled up in a tight ball like a cat, tail rippling slightly every time he snored, and she grinned.

"Yeah, but he still would, wouldn't he?"

Hiccup ceased his absentminded doodling in the grass and put down his stick briefly to give her an annoyed look.

"He's got enough dragon things to stress about without you slipping and falling off of high places. Give him a break!" As if to emphasize the point, Toothless opened one eye and glared at Anna.

"I'll be fine!" She waved a hand dismissively and turned back to the waves lapping off into the horizon. She closed her eyes, letting the sharp, cool breeze snap through her braids.

"I like it up here," she said absentmindedly. "I like how free it feels. Like no one's shutting me in or telling me how to act or what to feel or where to go or planning my life out for me. I can just be whatever I want."

"Well, I'm sure you'd feel just as free a few feet further away from your imminent death," Hiccup quipped. She felt a hand tug on her arm, pulling her sharply away from the edge of the bluff, and the stupor was broken.

"He— _ow!_ Hiccup!"

He grabbed her arm with both hands and dragged her back across the grass. She turned and gave him a pouting look.

He gave her one of his familiar tiny, wry smiles. "Well, I can't have you _dying_ on me."

"I was being careful," she mumbled. Hiccup just rolled his eyes.

She glanced in the other direction, down over the forest toward the castle. It looked so tiny and insignificant from all the way up here, as she would have liked to believe it was. Nonetheless, her eyes instinctually strayed to the willow tree in the garden, a tiny pale green smudge but still easily distinguishable from the other trees in its billowing foliage.

An image of a crying girl and a short, freckled boy formed in her mind as soon as she saw it, and she instantly regretted searching for it.

"It's been a little over a year," she said absentmindedly. "Since my parents…you know…"

Hiccup's voice softened, any teasing note that had been in it before completely gone.

"Do you still think about it?"

"Sometimes," she admitted. "Not a whole lot anymore, but…sometimes. I try not to, but they pop up. I see a book Mom used to read to me, I see a painting that Dad got all excited and explained the history of it to me…stuff like that."

Hiccup gave her a sympathetic look, nodding thoughtfully. As soon as she saw his brows start to furrow whenever they did when he was getting too concerned, she quickly plastered on a smile.

"It's gotten easier," she said brightly. "I mean, it hasn't been _easy_ exactly—never really was, ya know, lots of emotions and sadness and yucky stuff—but it's not as bad as it used to be. I try not to think about it too much. I know they wouldn't want me to…to just _mope_ on them forever and never move on with my life."

Hiccup put a hand on her shoulder, and despite herself, Anna's face grew slightly hot.

"It's okay to be sad. You lost someone you cared about. Those things take time to heal."

"More than a year, though?" She turned and gave him a plaintive look.

He shrugged. "However long you need. There's not really a time limit on it. And it's nothing to be ashamed of if it takes a long time for you to feel completely better. All that means is that you really cared about them."

"I know," Anna sighed. "I just wish it didn't… _hurt_ so much sometimes. But it really hasn't been as bad. And at least now I have _you_ to help me feel better!" She gave him her best grin, hoping it hid how much her entire body had started to sag at the thought of her parents.

He seemed quite flustered at her assessment, looking away and staring at the ground with reddening cheeks as he spluttered uncertainly. She gazed at him fondly, feeling the same warmth wash through her as she had when she had wrapped her arms around his waist when riding Toothless for the first time.

"Well, I'm glad I can be of service!" he said, grinning meekly.

It was moments like these when she wanted more than anything to marry him on the spot.

Not that she would ever dare say that aloud, of course. Hiccup had been all over the fjords and all across the land, probably meeting countless more beautiful and interesting girls than her as he went…why he would want to be with a boring, sheltered princess with no life experience who had spent her entire life shut in a castle was beyond her.

Well, perhaps if she never said anything about her feelings, he could never turn her down. She could simply ignore the fact that these girls existed, and that Hiccup's heart likely belonged to one of them. She could always hold onto the idle hope that someday, perhaps, he would fall in love with her. Someday, perhaps, they would share True Love's Kiss and live happily ever after.

She grew positively giddy at the idea, although she knew she had no real right to be.

She looked back at the garden and felt her eyes suddenly start to grow wet as she thought of her parents again.

"I…don't know why I brought this up," she said, hurriedly shrugging it off. "It's just depressing. Sorry, I don't mean to be a downer."

"Well, if you need to talk about it, that's okay," Hiccup said. "I'm happy to listen. And I want to help because—corny as it is—I care about you."

Anna's cheeks grew red. "No, no, talking about it doesn't usually help," she said, briskly wiping her eyes. "It just makes me sadder and then it gets worse. Nah, I don't want to talk about this anymore. I'd rather hear another one of your stories."

"My stories!" Hiccup looked taken aback by the sudden subject change, but there was also the smallest glimmer of relief in his eyes. He chuckled. "Well…all right, but you know I'm going to run out of these things to tell you eventually, right?"

Anna snorted. "Oh, yeah, right! You have, like, 5 new ones every time you come to visit me."

Hiccup help his hands up in defeat. "Well, you got me there! All, right, well…" He hesitated slightly, gazing thoughtfully off into the distance as he thought of something to tell her.

"Well, it was one of those slow Wednesday afternoons. Beautiful day, sun shining over the ocean as far as you could see, not a cloud in the sky. Toothless and I had decided to go out exploring—as you do when Wednesday gets slow—but thus far, it wasn't proving to be a very successful venture. I mean, as fascinating as it is to see the exact same ocean for miles and miles and miles, you eventually may start to crave a little variety."

Anna giggled at this, and Hiccup straightened with pride.

"Well, anyhow, we had been flying for a long while when we stumbled on this strange little forested island we had never seen before. We figured it beat flying over the ocean, so we went down to check it out."

"It seemed like a nice enough place, perfect for exploring. This really lush forest, all these waterfalls…I wanted to see everything! I always keep my journal handy for any notable wildlife, but this forest was oddly empty aside from a few squirrels and a deer or two. The most interesting thing I found was this place where the trees cleared out to lead into a rock cave, where there were some weird-looking runes in the stone. They were in this…" He gestured around, having a hard time describing them. "In this language neither Toothless nor I could make heads or tails of, but they looked like they'd been scrambled on there pretty frantically."

Anna bit her lip in worry. "Frantically? Maybe it was time to leave, then?"

"Ah, they looked pretty old," Hiccup said, waving a hand dismissively. "We figured whatever urgent matter these rune-people were scribbling about had probably been dealt with a long time ago. So we kept walking through the forest, when we heard it…"

"Heard what?"

"The sound of a thousand voices singing in this choir! It had to be the prettiest noise I'd ever heard, let me tell you. And I thought wow…if there's some mystical village on this island with lovely maidens who can hit all of their notes just right, by the gods I'm going to find it! I mean…how many people can go home and say they've tracked down some of the best singers in the world? Well, Toothless and I weren't about to miss out on that chance. So off we went!"

"Wait, wait, _Hiccup._ " Anna gave him a worried look. "You heard the really beautiful singing and you went _towards_ it? Haven't you ever read the siren myths?!"

"The siren myths?" He looked genuinely puzzled at the concept.

"Yeah, sirens! Beautiful killer mermaids that sing really pretty and they lure you to come toward their great singing and then when you get close enough…they eat your heart out!"

To emphasize her point, she curled her fingers into claws and then tugged her hands apart, making a ripping sound.

"So you _never_ go toward any singing that sounds too good," she added emphatically.

Hiccup laughed dryly. "Well, I wish someone had told me about _those_ before this whole excursion. Might've helped me to have better judgement!"

"So what happened, then?" Anna eyed her friend anxiously.

"Well, we kept going toward it in this sort of daze…it just sounded so amazing! But then, all of the sudden, it just _stops._ Toothless immediately freaked out and ran the other way before I could ask him what was going on. Well, I don't know what _his_ problem was, but _I_ wanted to figure out who was making all this stellar choir music, so I kept going toward where I had heard it from."

Toothless paused in his nap long enough to look up and give Hiccup a scowl and a disapproving grunt. "Hey, hey, bud, whoa! I'm getting to that part of the story!" he assured the dragon quickly. Still looking somewhat annoyed, Toothless shook his head and lowered his head back behind his tail.

"So you kept going _toward_ the creepily perfect music when you had the option _not_ to?" Anna asked incredulously.

"Well, I was curious," he replied with a shrug.

"Oh no," she whimpered. "This can't end well."

"So I keep going for a ways, and the forest thins out into this rocky clearing. But one look around this little rockpile, and I can tell something's not right. There's all these shiny, golden blobs lying around, and the sun's glinting off of them in such a way that I can't really see what they are. But I get a bit of a closer look, and I realize…they're all dragons! And other woodland creatures, all strewn across the clearing and trapped in solid amber."

Anna's eyes widened. " _What?_ But how?"

Hiccup smirked. "Well, I'm getting to that. All of the sudden, the singing started up again, and this time it was _loud_. I started looking around, wondering where a full choir could be hiding when there was absolutely no sign of civilization anywhere close by. Well, unless you count those weird runes, anyway. But then—BUT THEN—there's this flash of bright blue and orange and I see these two multicolored wings and I realize it wasn't a choir I heard at all. It was…" He paused meaningfully before curling his fingers and thrusting his hands forward into Anna's face dramatically. "…a DRAGON!"

Anna didn't react except to raise an eyebrow and look at him expectantly.

When this didn't seem to garner the reaction he had wanted, he decided to try again. "It was…a DRAGON!" he repeated, doing the same motion again in a more dramatic fashion in hopes of a different response.

When she still didn't react beyond an "mhmmm" and another expectant look, he let out an exasperated sigh.

"Ah come on, that's _it?_ No look of…of unbridled _shock_ at that plot twist?"

Anna rolled her eyes, laughing. "Oh my god, like I was even remotely surprised. It's _always_ a dragon in your stories!" She mimicked him in a high-pitched voice. "'It wasn't a stingray at all, it was a DRAGON!' 'It wasn't a giant tortoise at all, it was a DRAGON!' 'It wasn't an overgrown venus fly trap at all, it was a DRAGON!'"

Despite himself, Hiccup laughed at her imitation. "Oh come on, I do _not_ use that line that often! What is this character?"

"You just _did_ , though!" Anna teased. "Anyways, I figured the weird beautiful singing was going to be either sirens or some weird type of dragon. Called it from a mile away."

He looked discouraged for a second. "Come on…I'm not _that_ predictable, am I?"

Anna smiled. "Hey, don't worry! If you _were_ , then I wouldn't want you telling me stories—if your stories were predictable, I mean, then I wouldn't want you telling me them because I could always guess what would happen, and that would, um—kind of defeat the point and all, so since I _ask_ you to tell me them, you can be assured I _don't_ think they're predictable because I'm reasonably entertained—well, not _reasonably_ entertained, I actually think they're _really_ entertaining and you're good at telling them, and—" She stopped short when she realized he was giving her an amused look, stiffening in embarrassment. "Anyway, tell me what happened!" she said quickly.

"Well, I barely had time to process what was happening before the big dragon saw me, and his mouth opened right up and a big sticky golden glob shot out! Landed right on top of me in a gross mess, and before I could even make a noise to convey how unhappy I was about this, it hardened up and I couldn't get out!"

"Oh no," Anna gasped. "Just like the dragons!"

"Exactly! And then the foul beast began swooping down, planning on picking me up in my amber shell and devouring me whole, when who should show up but—"

"Toothless!" Anna interjected excitedly.

Hiccup smiled. "You got it! Here he comes, bursting out of the woods, roaring and spitting plasma everywhere! He shoots a ball of plasma at this amber, and it melts right off. You can bet I was out of there before the creepy siren dragon could catch up!"

"So what happened with the creepy siren dragon?" Anna asked.

"Well, Toothless must have thought ahead—when he came back, his ears were stuffed with moss. Clever trick—I would never have thought of that. Anyways, we decide we're going to play a little trick on this guy. I jump on Toothless and we get him following us into the air. We fly around the island until we find a nice big cave, and in we all go! Mind you, he's still trying to use his siren charms on us, but Toothless can't hear a thing."

"But wouldn't he just corner you in there?" Anna asked, furrowing her brow in confusion.

"Aha, you would think, but not _this_ dragon! You see, as we got further and further inside, the dragon's siren-song started to bounce and echo off the walls, magnified to be about five times as strong. Toothless still couldn't hear anything, but the other dragon…oh boy, did _he_ hear something! The hypnosis music coming from the cave walls that he just _had_ to get to! We left him in there in this confused daze, trying to go to the noise that he never seemed to realize was just the echo of his own musical bellowing. But after we were out of the cave, we got off of that island real fast! And that, Anna, is the story of how I caused a deadly predatory dragon to hypnotize himself."

" _Yes!_ You did it!" Anna clapped her hands and pumped her fist in the air excitedly.

"Thank you, thank you." Hiccup gave a small bow.

She gave him a tiny apologetic smile. "That's so cool. I wish…I wish I had more exciting stories to tell you, but I can never sneak off long enough to go on an adventure. All I have are the stories I read in the library."

"Well, those are still pretty good," Hiccup assured her. "Except the ones where the knights kill the dragons at the end, of course."

Toothless, who had woken up from his nap and started to groom himself, grunted in agreement.

"Yeah, those are always downers," Anna agreed. "And they all start to sound the same after a while. Oh, the valiant knight rescues the princess and saves the kingdom from the evil dragon! How original!" She made a face before going on. "I'd rather read stories about the Greeks! Or the Romans! Or the _Egyptians!_ " Her eyes lit up with sudden interest. " _The Odyssey_ , Osiris and Isis—all that stuff. Found a few good stories in the library, but there're never enough," she added mournfully.

Hiccup gave her a dubious look. "So you don't _ever_ get new books added to your library?"

"Well, the gates are closed," she sighed. "Who would add them?"

"Ah, good point. Well, you know…I'd go out and get you some more books, but a lot of the places Toothless and I have stumbled on don't take Berk's currency." He laughed nervously, giving her what looked like an ashamed look.

"Oh, no, it's okay!" she assured him quickly. "I don't really mind reading the same ones over. They're still good the fourth or fifth time!"

She looked back out past the edge of the bluff, where the ocean rose up to meet a horizon quickly reddening as the sun went down. Clouds had started to gather, hiding the setting sun in soft peach, tangerine, and rosy puffs.

"I wonder what it would be like to go there," she murmured, half to herself.

"Go where?" Hiccup asked.

"Egypt," she replied nonchalantly. "You know, see the Nile, pick the papyrus, look around the pyramids. Or Greece! With the parthenons, and the whitestone cities, and the _ocean!_ I want to see all of it, Hiccup!"

Her smile had grown so big that her entire face seemed to be glowing.

"Well…maybe you can!"

Anna turned to give Hiccup a dumbfounded expression. " _What?_ How?"

The dragon rider grinned. "Well, when it comes time for your sister's coronation, there's talk that she'll probably open up the gates, right? And then you're allowed to leave as long as they're open! And hey, you're the princess—your excuse doesn't have to be great. Just say you're running off to take care of some diplomatic business or something. Then I'll take you wherever you like. I mean, once they officially say you can leave your castle—who's to stop you from going far, far away? You've got to go by their exact wording. Like they say 'Oh, you can leave now'—and you say good, I'm going to leave MUCH more than you ever expected."

"That—that sounds amazing! But Elsa's coronation isn't for another two years." Anna's face fell briefly.

"Years, shmears. They'll go by like _that._ " Hiccup snapped his fingers. "And then after that, after they let you out, it'll be you, me, and Toothless—we'll go to Greece, Egypt, Rome, wherever you want to go. I want…" His expression grew soft. "I just want to show you all the things you want to see. I don't want you to have to live the rest of your life feeling cooped up and like you're missing out on the world. Because that was me, before I met Toothless…I never left my village, and I never thought I would ever have occasion to. But now that I've seen everything the world has to offer, and all these different places…well, I would never go back to hanging around in Berk all day for anything!"

"Oh, I don't want to spend the rest of my life cooped up here either," Anna agreed emphatically. "It's bad enough I've had to be shut up in that dumb castle for this long! But…even if the gates _are_ opened at coronation, could I just pick up everything and leave? I mean, I guess I have responsibilities…and stuff…"

Hiccup shrugged. "Eh, like I said, you're the princess. It's not really your subjects' place to grill you about why you're leaving anyway, since you're their almighty ruler, so your excuse doesn't have to be that elaborate. 'Oh, the queen of such-and-such country called on me to come discuss some very extra-important diplomatic business! I'm gonna be gone for a while!' And if any conflicts break out in Arendelle while you're gone, your sister can handle them. I doubt she had many _better_ things to do holed up in her room all these years than read up on how to be a good queen."

Anna smiled, but it quickly faded into a doubtful look. "Wouldn't someone send bodyguards with me or something?"

Hiccup smirked. "I'm sure we could find a way to distract them long enough for you to make a run for it. Then you jump on Toothless, we fly off before they can track you down, and the problem is solved!"

She laughed uneasily. "Well, I hope they wouldn't be _too_ worried about me and proceed to send search parties through all the lands! It _does_ sound great, though. Going off on adventures with you, leaving all this behind. I…" She paused.

"I just want to get out of here. I just want to get away from that empty castle, where everyone walks right past me to fuss over Elsa. 'Oh, is she ready to be queen?' 'Oh, she's growing into such an elegant young lady! She'll make a beautiful queen one day, don't you think?' No one pays me much mind when they can tend to _her_ instead."

"But she's a recluse," Hiccup said, blinking in confusion.

Anna smiled sadly. "Sure, but as the future queen, the servants still have to check up on her and give her her history lessons. Even when…" She choked slightly. "Even when our parents were alive, it seemed like it was _always_ about her somehow. She was the one they worried about, she was the one they always went to check up on and help, she was the one who I'd hear them talk about how proud they were of her."

"Well, if it's any consolation…I somehow managed to be my dad's unfavorite without even _having_ a sibling," Hiccup mumbled, laughing humorlessly.

"You get how it feels then, being overlooked like that," Anna sighed. "I guess…I guess everyone always assumed I was doing fine, because no one really stopped to ask if I wasn't. And it's almost like as long as everyone has their polished future queen, their heir to the throne, I'm just…a spare. On some level, I don't matter."

Her face fell and her entire figure seemed to wilt. She lowered her head to look at the ground uncertainly.

"Well, _I_ think you matter."

She looked up to see Hiccup gazing right at her, green eyes filled with all the same compassion and they had had the first time he had found her crying under that willow tree in the garden. She sucked in her breath, something about the open, unapologetic warmth in his expression making her entire being tingle with sudden nervousness.

Maybe she was only nervous because she was worried that it didn't mean what she thought it meant.

"Because I know how that feels, always feeling like everyone overlooks you to focus on someone better. But I don't…I don't really think there's _anyone_ better."

And suddenly he was closing the gap between them, and his lips were resting on hers. Everything around her seemed to stop.

It only lasted a few seconds, barely enough time for her to even process what was happening. When he pulled away she was gaping at him, still stiff with shock.

As soon as he saw her stunned expression he seemed to shrink down into himself, wrapping his arms tightly around his chest and studying the ground.

"I—I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me, I shouldn't have—"

Anna wasn't about to wait for him to apologetically babble long enough for him to decide he was going to change his mind.

She leaned forward and kissed him hard, sliding her arms delicately around his neck. His initial reaction was a surprised grunt, but after a short hesitation he kissed eagerly back and wrapped his arms around her waist. They both grew so wrapped up in it that they clumsily lost their balance, Anna tumbling backward and Hiccup quickly following so that they were a messy, kissing heap in the grass.

She kissed him as long as she possibly could, some part of her worried that this was all nothing more than some idealistic dream and the moment she stopped, she would wake up and never get another chance. The only reason she finally pulled away was when she needed to catch her breath.

He was lying next to her now, arms still around her. She smiled shyly at him.

"I, uh…I really didn't know you, uh…I didn't think you'd ever want to be with me like that," she stuttered.

"Why wouldn't I want to be?" he asked softly. "To tell you the truth, I thought _you_ didn't want _me_. I mean, you're a _princess_ and I'm just some…some scrawny kid! I figured you'd want to get yourself a handsome, sophisticated Prince Charming or something…"

Anna looked at him fondly. "I think you're _just_ as handsome as _any_ Prince Charming I've ever seen in the books," she gushed. "And you get me. You've kept me from being alone all these years. That's more than I can say for anyone else! But…" She hesitated.

"But why _me?_ You've been all over the place, you've met _so_ many girls I bet, and a lot of them are probably a whole lot prettier and less awkward and boring than me….so why me?"

He smiled. "Because none of them have a spark in them like you do. None of them wake up every day with a grin on their face trying to experience everything to the fullest despite being locked in a castle, and none of them go out of their way to see the good in everything and everyone despite going through all sorts of crap that would give them every reason not to. And that's what I like about you. You refuse to be defeated by anything, whether it's being locked in a castle, your sister not talking to you, what happened with your parents… _you just keep pushing on._ "

Anna smiled so big that her face started to hurt.

"And that determination, well…that's something I thought I'd never really find again after Astrid. But then I met you, and I got to know you, and that all changed…I realized I was wrong. What I needed wasn't her kind of determination, this…this desire to be the best at everything all the time and crush anyone who gets in her way. What I need is your kind of determination, where you pick yourself up again and keep smiling no matter what life throws at you."

Her cheeks turned bright pink. "You really—you really think all that about me?"

"Sure I did. I was just always worried I wouldn't be good enough for you. I couldn't give you what you needed or wanted."

"You're _more_ than enough."

She grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him in for another kiss, smiling as she felt his racing heart in his chest match her own.

"When Elsa's coronation comes and the gates are opened, I'm leaving with you," she murmured as they pulled apart. "I don't care what it takes. I'm going to find a way to get out of here with you and Toothless."

"Okay, sounds great!" He smiled, brushing a stray piece of hair out of her face.

"Well…only for a little while," she clarified, biting her lip. "I mean, I have to help Elsa look after the kingdom. But no one's going to miss me for a while. Hey, they never miss me when I come to hang out with you!" She laughed airily, although she felt the smallest prick of sadness at the thought.

"You _are_ coming to the coronation, right?" she asked, eyeing him anxiously.

He raised an eyebrow. "Am I invited?"

Anna blinked, realizing she wasn't sure. "I mean…I think so! All the neighboring kingdoms are invited, and…I guess Berk counts as a neighboring kingdom?"

"Well, you should probably get that checked so that the guards don't chase me out when I show up and then you have no idea where I am so that we can't dramatically run away together," Hiccup teased.

Anna glared at him. " _Hey!_ It's not 'dramatically running away together.' It's just…taking a vacation."

He smirked. "All right, you keep telling yourself that. But I think you're a lot more rebellious than you give yourself credit for, princess."

She smiled mischievously. "Only when I'm with you. But I like it that way!"

She leaned forward and kissed him again, feeling bigger, heavier words hanging in her mouth. As she pulled away, she opened her mouth to let them out and then shut it again.

Something felt wrong. No, it was too much, it was too soon. It wasn't the right time.

Perhaps they would make him think twice about her.

"I can't believe I have to wait two years to go anywhere with you," she settled for instead.

"Hey, calm down there, tiger!" He put a hand on her shoulder. "I know it seems like a lot now, but we'll be out adventuring soon enough."

Anna sighed. "You'd think now that I'm 16, they'd give me a bit more freedom. It's supposed to be this big significant age in the fairy tales!"

"Hey, just be patient!" He gave her a reassuring smile. "You'll be 18 before you know it. I promise."

* * *

She sat with her feet over the bluff, eyes fixed on the passing clouds drifting across the distant sky. She didn't dare look down, knowing her stomach would start twisting and writhing at the sight of the sheer drop.

A wonder she had managed to clamber up onto the empty cliff on her own without any dragons' help.

"You know, the coronation's in a year," she said to no one in particular. "I asked the minister if it would be okay for… _strangers from up north_ to come." She chuckled. "Didn't say _Vikings_ , I was worried that might…freak him out. I know it's dumb and awful, but you know what the kingdom thinks about Vikings. Anyways, he said all friends of Arendelle and the royal family of Arendelle are welcome…so I think that's a yes."

No reply came. Not that she was sure what she had been expecting.

"I'm not sure they'll let Toothless in," she went on. "I can try to sweet-talk them, but people are probably going to be constantly freaking out when they see him. I don't know if it would be worth the stress for him, you know? I imagine he'd get restless, anyway. He'd probably rather stay out in the forest and roll around in the grass or play in the river or something."

"Well, anyway, you're more than welcome to come. Unless you made alternate plans to meet up with me so we can go to Egypt. I mean, I hope you'll tell me if you did!"

Silence.

"I can't wait to see you either way! Maybe I should have given up hope by now, but you'll come back, Hiccup. You always do. I know you, you wouldn't leave me hanging like that…I…"

She started to choke on her words, and her eyes suddenly stung with water.

"I…just miss you so _much_ …you wouldn't…"

A sniffle, and a couple stray tears rolled down her face. She hastily wiped them off.

"You wouldn't just…kiss me and tell me you liked me and then never come back. You wouldn't do that. It's not you."

She looked higher into the sky, face twisting in anguish.

"It's not _you,_ Hiccup!" she screamed, fists pounding forcefully into the ground.

The sobs came full-force after that. For a long while she sat hunched in a bawling muddle on the edge of that tall, steep bluff, letting saltwater tears fall the long way down and mix seamlessly into the ocean far below.

"Why didn't you come back?" she whimpered. "I thought you were my friend…my only friend…I thought you were…"

She struggled to find the word.

"I thought it was always supposed to be the two of us."

Gradually, she reclined down onto her back, staring blankly at the sky as the last of the sobs ebbed away.

Well, this was the world she lived in now. He was all she had had, and he was gone. Maybe there was still some hope he would be back, but it was looking about as likely as managing to grow close with her sister again.

 _Have some hope!_ she told herself. _He'll be back for you. Believe in him a little. Just like you've always believed Elsa would come around someday._

Nonetheless, as she swung her legs back over the bluff and scooted away from the edge, she sighed.

Perhaps princesses weren't meant to end up with travelling vagabonds, going on wild adventures and running away from the routine of life in a castle. It simply wasn't the natural order of things.

Perhaps Anna would have to wait for Prince Charming to come after all.

* * *

 **YES HELLO FRIENDS I AM BACK**

 **First of all, I'd like to apologize for my…rather long leave of absence ^^; Ya girl was going through some…personal problems, to say the least. A friend I've been in love with for a while now got a girlfriend JUST as I was working up the courage to confess, which kinda destroyed my faith in love for a while. Needless to say, I was kind of off of my standard romance fanfics for a while…didn't really help that me and this guy are basically real-life Hiccanna, so I didn't even want to write about my OTP because it brought up too many bad feelings :( Luckily, I've managed to separate my love for my OTPs from my real-life ongoing romantic disasters, so I am now BACK ON FANFIC! It was hard, but I'm determined to never let my feelings for a boy ruin something else that I love. (Also side note, the boy in question is single again, and I'm going to officially ask him out soon! Wish me luck!)**

 **Anyway, uh…remember how I promised a sequel to Dragon-Riding in Arendelle? The fic I wrote…2 years ago? Well, here's…NOT QUITE A SEQUEL BUT A MIDQUEL! I'm the worst I know, I'm WAY overdue for an actual sequel ^^; BUT I figured this would tide you guys over until the sequel is all done (because I'm currently working on that too, luckily)! Also, I was looking over the plan for the sequel, and I realized (without giving away any spoilers!) it went 0-100 real quick XD And I realized I kind of NEEDED some kind of interim piece between when Hiccup and Anna meet for the first time in Dragon-Riding in Arendelle and when they meet up again in the sequel to actually develop their relationship and show how it progressed between when they first met and when Hiccup stopped coming to see her. Hopefully this short fic does a good enough job of showcasing their close friendship and their gradually-developed romantic attraction to each other!**

 **Quick disclaimer: I don't actually watch the How to Train Your Dragon Netflix show, so when I came up with a story for Hiccup to tell Anna, I just kind of picked a scary-sounding dragon at random off of the HTTYD wiki and made up a story about them. So after I wrote the Death Song anecdote, I realized there actually WAS a TV episode with the Death Song in it, so I went back and tried to make my story different enough to be entertaining XD I guess the two different first encounters with the Death Song can't really coexist in this universe, but all my Hiccanna fics take place in an alternate universe anyway, so the TV show and the canon Death Song episode probably never happened in this story. (An AU where Astrid never ended up liking Hiccup back and developed a grudging respect for him post-HTTYD but nothing more, to be more specific).**

 **I'm headcanoning that because Anna was shut in her castle for her entire childhood with nothing better to do, she is actually very well-read and knows a lot about mythology and history. Well canonically, she HAS read every single book in the castle library, so she has to have a pretty big knowledge base XD Hence why she knows about the concept of sirens and Hiccup doesn't. Also why she wants so badly to see specific places!**

 **Also, I was originally planning on having Anna end up rejecting a relationship with Hiccup after they kissed once on the basis of "you're all I really have—I can't afford to date you because if we had a bad breakup and had to stop being friends, I'd be alone again" sort of thing, but then I as like…THIS IS FREAKING 16-YEAR-OLD ANNA. IF SHE WAS WILLING TO MARRY A DUDE SHE JUST MET WHEN SHE WAS 18, THEN WHY THE FUCK WOULD SHE TURN DOWN A CHANCE AT ROMANCE WITH A GUY SHE LIKED BACK WHEN SHE WAS EVEN MORE HORMONE-ADDLED AND NAÏVE? So I let them go ahead and confess their feelings and make out (also fun fact: this is the first Hiccanna kiss scene I've ever written! Even in the long Hiccanna fanfic I'm working on, I haven't gotten to the part where they have their first kiss yet XD). Unfortunately, this led to a much angstier ending than I had planned originally, where Anna is the all the more hurt when Hiccup stops coming to see her because they were kind-of-sort-of dating D:**

 **"WHAT?" you scream, gesturing furiously to Love Notes. "Why do you keep writing all these prequels/midquels with depressing endings BUT NOT ACTUALLY GIVING ME ANY FUCKING SEQUELS?" Well fear not, there WILL be sequels! All in due time ^^; And all will be resolved in the Dragon-Riding in Arendelle sequel, I promise! I decided to finally get up off my ass and write it this winter break, so it's mostly done already :D Look out for it these next few months, because IT IS COMING!**


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